Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics logo (image from 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics)
Olympics and Politics -Other Countries Join Boycott — What else is New?
That’s Amaury News and Commentary
By Amaury Pi Gonzalez
As recently reported, here and in other media sports sites, the United States announced a boycott of the Winter Olympic Games to take place in Beijing, China next February, because of their continued record of human rights abuses. This is more of a symbolic boycott, as the US pledged not to send any government dignitaries or VIP.
Aside from that, US Athletes will travel and take part of the competition. So far these countries have done same as the US, no diplomat dignitaries, but their athletes will make the trip: Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Lithuania and New Zealand and there might still be others.
A total of 95 countries are scheduled to be in Beijing for this winter Olympics. Many believe this is not really a serious boycott. So far no countries have prohibited their athletes from attending. Many decades ago, there was a big argument here in the United States about such controversy, to send or not to send the athletes because of political reasons.
It was in 1936. In 1936 the Berlin Olympic Games (summer) was much more than another big sporting event. Hitler used it for worldwide propaganda when his ambitions of world domination were just starting to form. A few years later (1939) the Nazis invaded Poland, then Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia and Greece. Obviously there was no boycott by the US. However, there was a lot of debate in the US if the country should send their athletes to Hitler’s Germany.
(The US didn’t declared war on Germany until after Pearl Harbor in 1941) Many US athletes believed the best way to defeat the Nazi’s was to beat them in athletic competition, others however, believe to participate was like sending an endorsement of Hitler. After a long debate in the country those that opposed the boycott won and the US sent their athletes to that historic Olympics. The rest is history.
There were many other times that countries have boycotted other countries. This is nothing new and there will be more boycotts, I am sure in the future to come. China has already blasted back at the US and other countries, like Communist governments usually do “they are right and the rest of the world is not”.
NBC owns the rights, and will carry the games; they know that anything that the Chinese government doesn’t like on the NBC feed it will be censored. That’s what they do, because when some of their own athletes in China criticize their government they “disappear”. Famous tennis star Peng Shuai, is a story currently developing.
Sometimes athletes speak against human rights violations, and that is fine, when it is done here in the US and other Democracies, but not in China or dictatorships where free speech is not allowed. Actually in Communist countries speech is allowed as long as you agree with those in power. Boston Celtics player Enes Kanter Freedom (Freedom, he added to his name after recently becoming a US Naturalized citizen).
He was born in Turkey and has made serious comments about that government and their abuses as well as China and their human rights abuses. It is too bad that other players in the NBA have been very quiet on that front.
China is a huge market for the NBA, and most players chose not to compromise their careers talking about China. Let’s say they like to keep selling their Nike shoes here, which are made there for pennies…
I hope for the very best to all athletes, US and from all countries, that will participate. But to be surprised about political implications during summer or Winter Olympics is to be totally disconnected with the world we are in.
Enjoy the Olympics, if you can.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
